


Backyard Talks

by imgilmoregirl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family, One Shot, Post-Season/Series 06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-09 20:15:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12283620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imgilmoregirl/pseuds/imgilmoregirl
Summary: Belle is tired of waking up to an empty bed, but Rumple still needs to spin to forget.





	Backyard Talks

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon A Time or any of the characters and storylines in the show. This is just a fanwork made for fun.
> 
> Anonymous prompted: Rumbelle + things you said in the backyard at night.

Belle woke up to the sound of Gideon babbling. She turned around in the bed, sinking her face on the pillow, trying to ignore the sounds coming from the baby monitor, until she was completely sure that they were not going to stop. He was totally awake and probably playing with his stuffed bunny on the crib, clearly not willing to go back to sleep unless someone came there to soothe him, but Belle was too tired and groped the sheets beside her in an attempt to find her husband's body and wake him, but the other side of the bed was empty.

Making a whiny noise she sat up, looking around with weary eyes, before she finally sighed and slipped off the bed, going to the nursery to find Gideon chewing the bunny's ear. When he saw her, he let it fall from his mouth, stretching his little arms to be lifted from the crib, resting on his mother's hip with a giant smile. And a great part of her tiredness was forgotten as soon as Belle got him safe against her body, the light weight of her son making wake up in the middle of the night worth it.

"Papa," Gideon demanded making her giggle, "papa!"

"Come on, Gid, I'll prepare a bottle to you and then we can see if we find papa," she murmured, heading out of the nursery and going to the kitchen, downstairs.

Muttering a lullaby, Belle prepared him some milk and putted it on his baby bottle, letting the toddler grab it and start to suck happily. All lights were turned off except from the kitchen and after a moment cradling Gideon gently, she noticed that the door for the backyard was open and decided to go there, because if her husband wasn't anywhere inside the house, then she bet that she knew where he was.

"Rumple?" Belle called, crossing barefoot the backyard. "Rumple are you here?"

Smoothing Gideon's back, she eyed the basement, but seemed to be dark inside there too. Frustrated, Belle shouted to the night: "Rumplestiltskin you better show yourself right now!"

The door of the basement was open, to show her husband coming up to meet her. He was almost fully dressed, only tie, waistcoat and jacket missing to finish his usual outfit, but she needed to admit that he looked a lot more relaxed this way, with the highest part of his shirt open, showing his soft skin and sleeves tucked to his elbows. Rumple had little smirk on his lips as he approached her, that looked a complete mess in comparison to him.

"Hey," he murmured, pressing a kiss to her forehead and stroking their son's light-brown hair. "I was down there spinning, what are you doing up?"

"This little someone," Belle started, pointing at Gideon, "thinks papa's habit of spending most of the night awake is a cool thing, so he woke up to play."

She tickled her fingers under the toddler's chin and he busted into delicious giggles, almost letting his bottle fall, but Rumple got it and handled to Gideon again.

"He is getting good in tricking me then, because I was at the nursery just some moments ago and I was pretty sure that he was asleep. But well I should have checked twice," Rumplestiltskin said watching as Gideon finished his bottle and laid his head against Belle's shoulder. "Do you want me to take him upstairs, sweetheart?"

"No, I can manage to do that," she replied. "I guess was just looking for you, because it still bothers me to wake up to an empty bed."

He opened his mouth to answer that but Gideon started to stretch his arms in his direction, trying to escape from his mother's embrace.

"Papa," the child begged.

"Yes, come here, my darling boy." Rumple mumbled taking him from Belle and walking to a small bench they had settled on the backyard after she returned home, as his wife loved to read outside, especially because she could place a huge basket by her side and put Gideon in there, so she could read aloud for him to hear while the sun bathed their skins.

"I know that I shouldn't leave you alone in bed that often, but sleep doesn't come so easily for me as it does for you and sometimes I need something to distract my mind from my own thought, so I wander around the house. I check on Gideon and I spin."

"Because it helps you forget," she completed but then furrowed, taking the seat beside him and asking: "About what?"

"Everything," Rumplestiltskin answered, sincerely. "I still think about my Baelfire as I do our grown-up boy."

Looking down at her baby's perfect little face, she remembered the handsome man she knew he would grow into as the years go by. Belle always caught herself thinking about him, about how tortured her son had been in this other life, where everything he knew was pain. She had vowed to give her child the best childhood memories he could get and always assure him that he was loved and had a tender home to look back to.

"I do too," Belle whispered and then noticed that Gideon's chest was raising and falling in a heavy way as his eyelids closed. "Ah, he slept."

Rumple nodded smiling while she placed the baby bottle she had been holding aside, and let her take their son from him to nestle him against her own chest, rocking the toddler with a motherly look in her eyes that was so full of love that his heart attempted to stop at this beautiful sight.

"It helps to know that you two are here and safe," he said moving his hand to rest on her shoulder and allow his fingers to play with the curls of her hair. "When you were living at that ship, I couldn't manage a sleep a full night, because I was always drowning in concern, but then the mornings came and I always ended up doing something to push you away again."

Belle snorted, angry with herself for the things that had happened in the past, but she knew she shouldn't let her mind wander back to these dark times. The moonlight was gently illuminating them, crickets made low noises in the grass and she had the most important men of her life right there by her side, every bad thing should be forgotten.

"Those were horrible days, my love, that I don't want to think about anymore, because we were stupid and we hurt each other in every single way possible," she said, looking deep into his brown eyes and leaning closer to him. "We started over, Rumple, and this moment here with the three of us is everything we should think about."

Agreeing with her, Rumplestiltskin caught her lips in a sweet slow kiss, cupping her cheek and feeling more grateful for them to have worked things out than never before. Family always meant the world to him and now he had it with Belle and nobody was going to take it away from him.

"Back to when you were a maid in my castle," Rumple started as he departed his lips from hers, "I could have never imagined that this would happen."

He gesticulated between them, both meaning their relationship and their son that was now peacefully back to sleep, completely unaware of its parents’ conversation.

"But you wished so, didn't you?"

"Even monsters can dream, can't they?" He chuckled. "I just wanted you, whatever came in addition would only be a gift, and in fact it is."

Belle bit down at her lower lip trying to hid a smile as she thought about her husband plotting to have her all the time she was in the Dark Castle, Belle just wished he hadn't been so fool to the point of throwing her out when they shared that first True Love's kiss, but now she knew that Rumple needed his powers to find his boy. She bent down, brushing her lips at her child's forehead.

"I'm really glad that the only villain that I have chasing after me lately is you," Belle said with a giggle making her husband laugh too.

"The deep conversations we have, in the middle of the night at our backyard," Rumplestiltskin chuckled.

"It could be worse," she shrugged, "we could have been burying a body."

This time he had to hold the guffaw that attempted to escape him, so he wouldn’t wake his son.

"Where did that come from?"

"We hid Blue's body in the back of your shop for weeks!"

"But she was not dead," he pointed out.

"Yeah," Belle mumbled, "but I'm tired and I'm not a good thinker when I feel exhausted."

Standing up, Rumplestiltskin held a hand up for her to help her do the same and enlaced his arm on her waist. "Alright, time to go to bed, sweetheart."

So, the three of them headed back inside the salmon house, leaving a baby bottle forgotten in the backyard.

**Author's Note:**

> My apologize if there is something wrong with my writing. English is not my first language.


End file.
